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Food Hygiene Rating Scheme

Whether you are a Birmingham resident or simply visiting we feel you should be able to make informed choices about where you buy and/or eat food within the city. If you are choosing a restaurant, takeaway, cafe, sandwich shop, pub, hotel, supermarket or any other retail food outlet we think you should not just be able to check out the menu but be able to check out the food hygiene rating of that food business as well!

Birmingham has over 8,000 food businesses across the city with all of those businesses regularly inspected by our team of Environmental Health officers. When an inspection takes place an assessment is made of the overall level of hygiene at the business and the business is then awarded a score of between 0 (urgent improvement necessary) at the bottom to 5 (very good) at the top. This information should be available to you the customer and for that reason the hygiene ratings for Birmingham food businesses are available online at:-

Food businesses can also display a certificate showing their rating actually at the premises to provide consumers with on site information about their hygiene standards at the time they were last inspected.

The main aim of the food hygiene rating scheme is to reduce the incidence of foodborne illness - one million cases annually with 20,000 hospitalisations and 500 deaths. The associated costs to the economy are in the region of £1.5 billion annually.

Putting aside the sometimes serious consequences of poor food hygiene the rating scheme also makes good business sense - the scheme gives recognition and a useful marketing tool to those businesses that meet legal requirements, and an incentive to those not meeting the grade to improve. The scheme is designed so that all businesses, no matter how small, can achieve the top rating and it includes a number of safeguards to ensure that businesses are treated fairly and equitably.

Details on how to appeal your score, to request a revisit by an officer or for a right to reply are set out in the attachments below.

The scheme is not just confined to food businesses in Birmingham with the National Food Hygiene Rating Scheme operating right across England, Wales and Northern Ireland where almost all local authorities are taking part.